 Here in 2 Samuel chapter 19 and I know that all of you have been reading ahead and you realize that there are 43 verses to this chapter, don't you? You all know that because you've been reading, huh, Liars? But it is a long chapter and it's one of those chapters that, frankly, as we go through there, I don't find a whole lot of places to make application, but it is what we do. We study verse by verse and we'll be looking at some things here. So as we go through 2 Samuel chapter 19, what we're seeing is the kingdom is being restored to King David. And I'll give you some background, perhaps some of you haven't been with us previous to this particular study, I'll give you some context. But let's begin reading here in verse 1, 2 Samuel chapter 19, verse 1. I'll read to verse 4 and we'll get into our study. 1 Samuel chapter 19 beginning at verse 1, reading to verse 4, Job was told, Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom. So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard it said that day, the king is grieved for his son. And the people stole back into the city that day as people who are ashamed to steal away when they flee in battle. But the king covered his face and the king cried out with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son. David has a son named Absalom and as we have seen, Absalom rebelled against his father attempted to steal the kingdom and ultimately had been killed by his own cousin, David's commander, a man by the name of Job. You see, Absalom's troops had been defeated by David's and he fled and ultimately they caught him and they killed him. Now before this happened, David was standing there at the gate in a place called Mahatnaim and as he was there at the gate, as the captains were leading the divisions through that gate, David was speaking to the captains and he had spoken to them in such a way that he said, For my sake, deal gently with the young man Absalom. David's heart, in other words, as a loving father was for his son Absalom to be spared. It may be that David felt that Absalom was just going through a phase in his life, that Absalom was simply a young man who was doing bad things, he was a rebel who needed to be corrected and so David from the eyes of a loving father more than likely didn't really see how evil his son was. Now, Joab, David's commander, his nephew, David's commander Joab did see how evil Absalom was and so when given the opportunity, because he was doing something that he more than likely felt was a proper judgment, when given the opportunity he made sure that Absalom died and so he struck Absalom but his men, his bodyguards, if you will, made sure that Absalom was dead and so they have killed this young man. So on the one hand you have a father with a loving heart desiring to see his son who may be simply a rebel going through a phase, you want to see him treated gently. On the other hand, you have a commander who says no, he needs to be dealt with severely and so what happens is that David just had a tough time coming to believe that his son could be as evil as he was. It may be that he thought that what Absalom needed was some time and some understanding but in reality he needed more than time and understanding. My dad was one of those loving men who saw me with potential he said that he felt that I was just going through a phase in my life and felt that I one day would outgrow my sinfulness and the bottom line is you never outgrow sinfulness, don't get caught up deceived believing that you're going to someday outgrow your tendency to lie or your tendency to overdrink or one day you're going to mature past the need for cocaine or whatever, that's not going to happen. You're not going to outgrow your desire to sleep around, that doesn't happen. What happens is you refine those sins and you get even more addicted to them. Unless you repent from them, unless you turn from them, unless you hate them, unless you load them, unless you get to the point where you say I can't stand this anymore, you're going to remain in those sins. No, you might cry over it once in a while, you might mourn over it, you might say oh I feel terrible, I feel like I'm entangled but you do nothing to escape it because you're in bondage to it. See you don't outgrow sin and David had made apparently a mistake to believe that I just have a son who's rebellious but he'll be okay in the future so therefore deal gently with my young man with that young man Absalom. That gives you some insight. Young man Absalom, he'll outgrow this, he'll be okay. Joab on the other hand says no way. This guy is a rebel, this guy is attempting to steal the kingdom from you and there's no way I'm going to allow this to take place. You see you don't outgrow sin, you don't mature past it, you repent of it and you turn from it and you hate it and you say God make me different. That's what happened in all of our lives who have come to Christ in one form or another, that's what happened in my life. When I finally said I cannot take the sin anymore, I cannot take what I'm doing to people anymore, I can't do this anymore. God I need your help. It didn't come because I had some sweet girlfriend who said oh you'll be okay, I believe in you. It came when I said God I am miserable, I hate what I've done, I need something beyond my own willpower and my own strength. I need your help. That's how it works guys, that's how you get right with God. And sometimes people say well I've given God a try and he doesn't work. No, you never repented and hated that sin. You gave God a chance, you don't give God a chance, you give him your life. You repent and you turn from your sin and you say God I'm miserable, I hate this. Well in the case of Absalom, Absalom was not a son who was just a bad kid going through a phase. He was an evil young man who was trying to get his father killed and stole his kingdom. But when Absalom died, David went into severe, severe mourning. He began to cry and he began to carry on in a terrible way. Notice verse 23 of chapter 18, rather 33 in chapter 18 how it says here the last verse of the chapter, the king was deeply moved, went up to the chamber over the gate and wept and as he went he said thus, oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, only I had died in your place, oh Absalom, my son, my son. Five times, my son, five times I would have died for you, I'd have died in your place and so he was absolutely broken and so as this is taking place verse 1 of chapter 19, Job was told, behold the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom and the result was the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard it said that day the king is grieved for his son and so instead of having a victory march entering in as those who had won, they began to act as if they had lost and it was demoralizing everybody because of how David was responding. He was keeping this up for several days because it took time for the troops to return from battle and finally his crying, his constant crying and his acting this way got to be too much and so as this is taking place and again in verse 4 the king covering his face crying out, oh my son Absalom, my son, my son. Well Joab verse 5 came into the house to the king and said today you have disgraced all your servants who today have saved your life, the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives, the wives of your concubines. In that you love your enemies and hate your friends for you have declared today that you regard neither princes nor servants for today I perceive that if Absalom had lived and all of us had died today then it would have pleased you well. These men should have returned as heroes. Your sorrow over your son undermines them. Absalom wanted to kill you. They fought to save you, but it looks like you love those who hate you. If we all would have died and Absalom would have lived, you would have been happy. And so he's chastening the king, he's correcting him in verse 7 it says therefore arise go out and speak comfort to your servants for I swear by the Lord if you do not go out not one will stay with you this night and that will be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now stop laying around get out of your house go to the gate the gate that you went to and blessed and encourage them when they were going off to fight go back to that gate now and encourage them and speak to them and tell them how grateful you are to them tell them that they were courageous thank them for their faithfulness reward them because if you don't do this I guarantee that you'll have no army and you will lose your kingdom now Joab spoke with experience and as such he had the ability to do that because he was speaking from somebody who was a battlefield general this is a man who knows armies he knows how men act on the field he knows what's going to happen to demoralize troops he was somebody who could speak in that way and therefore he took it upon himself to correct that king now sometimes by way of application we go through things that maybe not so much unique but they're new to us we go through the loss of severe pain of some sort and and somebody comes and speaks to us and somebody says to us you know what it's time for you to stop crying it's time for you to start moving on when you're going to move on and as we're speaking to them you know and hearing that it may be that they they will say well you know all things work together for the good for those who love God to those who are the called according to his purpose this is all going to work well for you just you know how you know firm up your faith and and and and go out there and just watch what God will do and and you're looking at this person and you're thinking within yourself well the scripture is true but what gives you the authority experience are right to come in to speak to me that way person may be 18 years old and you're in your 40s or 50s and and they come and chasing you like that you're not able to necessarily take the correction or exhortation from somebody who who who's not been there and and and sometimes that's that's hard even today I was in between services and and a young man was standing and he was and he started to weep and and I was talking to him in in between the services and and he said to me I I know I can speak to you he says because my father just died he says and I know that your dad died and and I need to ask you some questions and he came to me because because I understand I understand and I'm able to tell him things that he could listen to and and I started saying things to him like you have dreams about him don't you and he speaks to you in your dreams doesn't he because yes I do I said I understand that so my dad sometimes when I first lost him my dad I dream of my dad I said do you know one time and he's crying I said do you know that one time I awakened because someone was crying so loud in my house that it woke me up it woke me up I could hear him and it was me I was crying am I asleep I miss my dad I said I understand I understand you see sometimes when you've been there you've got a word they can receive but sometimes you you you haven't and so you come on and you correct them and you tell them what God can do and it all may be true but they're looking at you saying I'm not quite sure I can receive this from your hand because you really don't know the depth of the pain I'm experiencing right now now Joab had a connection with David he's a battlefield general but Joab doesn't understand how David feels about the loss of his son he doesn't understand that at all his advice is good it's right you need to be aware of the fact that the way you're carrying on is communicating to the troops something that is causing them to be demoralized they should have come in with a sense of victory because of how they have safeguarded your throne and protected your wives and children and and and all that you possess instead you're acting as if you'd have preferred they died and Absalom would have lived sometimes men have to be spoken to in that way ladies not necessarily by you but sometimes men communicate well to men were where sometimes ladies just don't understand that sometimes women don't know that that men speak to men in that way and and sometimes from the mouth of a man another man can receive it general Boykin who has come and spoken at this church is a man who has battlefield experience decorated soldier was the commander over the Delta Force in the US Army so warrior he's a man's man and after he had spoken on one occasion a veteran who had seen a lot of action and was still dealing with the with the memories of it came and spoke to Boykin and said to him something like I've gone through all of this and I just can't shake it to which general Boykin is reported to have said to this young man get over it and move on now women don't necessarily do that to other women this guy broke my heart and he left and I'm so hurt and oh yeah what did he do he did this he did this if he did oh he did I hate him that's a woman a guy will say uh-huh so what there are a lot of women out there open your eyes stupid that's men men are different than women I'm gonna cry for days all right you cried do we you know how many minutes do I have to put up with this man let's go bowling I mean that's guys guys are just different and and with with in this particular instance what you have is you have a man speaking to another man in a way that men do often communicate ladies very often can understand that they think you need to be more gentle you need to get more details we gotta make this something on on a lifetime movie or something I mean they they get caught up with that and men just say come on let you know what let's just keep going there's this old term we used to use man up and let's just go cut it out well what happens here is Joab's advice to David is solid but we'll see in a moment how David responds to it in reality and so what happens in verse 8 it says the king arose and sat in the gate and they told all the people saying there's the king sitting in the gate so all the people came before the king for everyone of Israel had fled to his tent so they once again are having their morale built up now verse 9 all the people were in dispute throughout all the tribes of Israel saying we're in a dispute throughout all the tribes Israel saying the king saved us from the hand of our enemies he delivered us from the hand of the Philistines and now he has fled from the land because of Absalom but Absalom whom we anointed over us has died in battle now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing back the king so there's a dispute now listen we know that David left and there were reasons that he did that but remember with me that David protected us that he fought the Philistines and the only reason he left the city was because of Absalom and that was because he wanted to save the people and you're not saying anything about this what are we gonna do they say in verse 10 Absalom whom we anointed over us has died in battle in other words why have you remained in silence why aren't you once again rallying to follow the lead of David and so there's a disputation taking place so whether or not these tribes are going to once again ally themselves under David as their king well verse 11 King David sent to Zadok and Abiath are the priests saying speak to the elders of Judah saying why are you the last to bring the king back to his house since the words of all Israel have come to the king to his very house you are my brethren you are my bone and my flesh why then are you the last to bring back the king listen there are other tribes remember there are 12 tribes of Israel these tribes he's referring to as as Israel are the 10 northern tribes and he's saying these tribes of all rallied and have actually wanted to meet to once again be king over the nation you Judah are my relatives because David was from the tribe of Judah that's what he means when he says to them you are my bone and you are my flesh in other words you're my family now I will deal kindly with you even though you rallied behind Absalom you went behind my son and you no longer supported me but I want you to know that I will deal kindly with you now he goes a bit further in verse 13 and he says say to Amasa are you not my bone in my flesh God do so to me and more also if you are not commander of the army before me continually now notice in place of Joab now Amasa had been placed as the commander of the army by Absalom and actually had replaced Joab because Joab had remained with David but Amasa is his nephew we saw that in chapter 17 verse 25 and so David is saying to him listen you are my relative and I'm gonna make it very clear to you that I'm gonna pardon you of your treason I'm even gonna put you in a position I'm gonna replace Joab and I'm gonna make you the commander now why would David do something like that when we've been studying through the life of David and his relationship with Joab remember with me that all the way back in 2nd Samuel chapter 3 Joab killed Saul's general Abner because Abner had killed Joab's brother Asael so he was angry and had him put to death and David got upset about that when when when they actually killed Abner then secondly David had given the order to treat Absalom with gentleness but it was Joab who went out and made sure that that young man was killed and then finally as we just read Joab showed great disrespect when he spoke to David and so David demoted him David had the ability to do so and that's what he did now as this is taking place verse 14 he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah just as the heart of one man so that they sent this word to the king return you and all your servants then the king returned and came to the Jordan and Judah came to Gilgall to go to meet the king to escort the king across the Jordan and so this gesture has the desired impact they unanimously asked him to return as their king and so they get to this place Gilgall that's an important city it's three miles east of the city of Jericho just north of Jerusalem and the elders of Judah go to meet King David as he returns from east of the Jordan River now as this is all taking place and David is about to come in verse 16 you remember this this fellow Shimei Shimei the son of Gara a Benjamin who was from Bahurim hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul and his 15 sons and his 20 servants with him and they went out over the Jordan before the king then a ferry boat went across to carry over the king's household and to do what he thought good now Shimei the son of Gara fell down before the king when he had crossed the Jordan then he said to the king do not let my Lord impute iniquity to me or remember what wrong your servant did on the day that my Lord the king left Jerusalem that the king should take it to heart for I your servant know that I have sinned therefore here I am the first to come today of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my Lord the king but Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said shall not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed the Lord's anointed and David said what have I to do with you you sons of Zeruiah that you should be adversaries to me today shall any man be put to death today in Israel for do I not know that today I am king over Israel therefore the king said to Shimei you shall not die and the king swore to him Shimei you remember him he was the one who was standing there on that hillside as David was leaving Jerusalem throwing dirt in the air and throwing rocks at him and saying you're getting what you deserve you blood thirsty man and he followed him and he kept throwing dirt in the air I mentioned that he was kind of like a mean chihuahua chasing after David David said well perhaps the Lord is saying something to me through him but David's servants wanted to go and take his head off and once again that's taking place here when it says in verse 21 Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said shall not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed the Lord's anointed I want to take him out I wanted to take him out then I will take him out now don't show mercy to this guy David remember he cursed you remember how he treated you and I want to take his head off of his shoulder well David's looking at his nephew because he is the son of Zeruiah Zeruiah being David's sister he's looking at his nephew and he says to him listen your heart and mine aren't the same on this matter shall any be put to death today in Israel do I not know that today I am the king over Israel therefore verse 23 the king said to Shimei you shall not die what he's literally saying is you shall not die today but you will die you know that will happen later but not today it's a happy day he won't be happy for you later on David wanted to enter in in triumph without any problems and that's what he's about to do so he tells his nephew leave it alone he turns to Shimei I'm going to show your mercy right now and that's how it works well verse 24 now Mephiboshet the son of Saul came down to meet the king and he had not cared for his feet nor trimmed his mustache nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he returned in peace he was a hippie I had a lot of friends who were just like that never took care of their feet trimmed their mustache or washed their clothes that is a picture of mourning the fact that he hadn't taken care of himself is another way of saying that for a long time because it takes a long time for your nails to grow your mustache to grow and all of that it takes a long time it's a picture that from the day that David left Jerusalem he was in a state of mourning at the loss of his king and that's why it's described this way so it says in verse 25 it was when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king that the king said to him why did you not go with me Mephiboshet why didn't you come after me when I left I mean you have this appearance of mourning but the bottom line is is when I left you could have accompanied me why didn't you do that well here's your answer he answered in verse 26 my lord oh king my servant deceived me for your servant said I will saddle a donkey for myself that I may ride on it and go to the king because your servant is lame and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king but my lord the king is like an angel of god therefore do what is good in your eyes for all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king yet you set your servant among those who who eat at your own table therefore what right have I still to cry out anymore to the king listen king the bottom line is as as I've been mourning for you since the day you left and I turned to my my servant the servant by the way was a man by the name of Ziba and I said to him go and saddle a donkey for me so I can go with my king but what did Ziba do well we know because we've already read the passage what he did what he did is found in chapter 16 what he did is he went to you David and he slandered me he came with those donkeys yes they were laden with goods for you and your and your and your people and and he lied and and said that I was wanting to be king in chapter 16 verse 3 Ziba said he is staying in Jerusalem he has said today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me so he lied and he's saying that's not at all what took place I wanted to go with you but he came and misrepresented he says I know that you've been merciful to me my father's house they were but dead men I understand that because when Ishbosheth tried to take the kingdom you showed mercy to my house and you showed mercy to me instead of slaying me because you had asked is there anybody from the house of Saul Jonathan that I can minister to and and I being Jonathan's son was shown mercy I don't deserve it but you gave it to me so no I would have gone with you if I could have but my servant has slandered me when verse 29 the king said to him why do you speak anymore of your matters I have said you and Ziba divide the land Mephibosheth said to the king rather let him take it all in as much as my lord the king has come back in peace to his own house now David doesn't know for sure at that moment and seeing that this is something that he's not getting all the information given to him at one time he's not sure who's really telling all the truth is it is it Ziba or is it Mephibosheth and so what he does is he says listen the land that had been handed to Ziba what I'm going to do is just divide it into two you get a portion of it he'll get a portion of it you both get an inheritance of it and you'll be fine but what Mephibosheth does has nobility to it because Mephibosheth says I don't want it I don't need it I have no desire for revenge and this desire this lack of desire for revenge ought to be proof of his sincerity and his innocence before David he's saying the only thing that matters to me king is that you're alive Ziba can keep all of the goods he can have all the material items because I want to be in a right relationship with you and I want to demonstrate that that I have a sincerity in this so I'll leave it in your hands you do what is right in all of this I don't need a single thing I don't need compensation I have been cheated but I'm going to leave that into your hands you make a determination and I'll trust you to do the right thing but am I asking for this no I'm not because his lack of desire for material things is going to demonstrate his sincere love for that man and that's what he's doing here he's saying I don't really need these things to be happy I just need to be in a right relationship with you you know when the apostle paul in the new testament was writing to a church a church that was in a city in Greece called Corinth you have what is called the book of first Corinthians it was a letter that was written to a church in Corinth Greece the book is 16 chapters long it's a good size letter and in the first several verses of first Corinthians the apostle paul gives a lot of commendations to those Corinthian believers you have come behind in no spiritual gifts he tells them and and he actually commends them in many ways until right around the ninth verse or so of the chapter chapter one first eight or so verses he's commending them and then from verse nine or so following he brings correction because they were a church that was extremely worldly it was carnal he said to them he said you you act like mere men you act like unsaved people there's so many things going on in your church that are absolutely wrong you're divided over so many things you have your favorite teachers and and you have struggles over what communion actually means and you have no clue what it is to to be married and and the spiritual gifts are creating division rather than unity and he corrects them over and over and over again so when you read first Corinthians you see that he makes a lot of statements to them and one of the things that that paul is greatly upset with them about was the fact that they weren't living in unity this was a church that was materialistic in its heart and and so if i was in we'll say a church service like this and i was doing a business dealing with one of the brothers and the fellowship and and that brother ripped me off i would take him to court and that was was taking place with the Corinthians when this church was maybe six months old or less i had i used to have a an old ford a 1968 ford uh truck a pickup truck and somebody i knew through this church had approached me and he knew that that the engine had hadn't seized i marie was driving the truck to to uh to work she used to be a substitute teacher at chino high school marie taught spanish to uh students in chino high school and and when our church first began and we always thought that was the lord because marie doesn't speak spanish and neither did her students at the end of the year but they all got ace um and she was on her way to work and uh i had not put oil in the engine and it seized and so some friends of mine came in we towed it back to my house and it sat in from my house for several months i didn't have the money to put an engine in this truck and so it sat there so somebody approached me and said listen i would uh like to buy your truck from you and uh so i can i have an engine i can put in i can use it for work and so i said okay so he came and towed the truck away and he said i'll pay you about six months later i'd never received any money for it you know he's driving the truck to work but apparently wasn't getting paid for working at least i wasn't and uh so now i'm in this position what do i do you know do i jump on him and say look at you owe me this money or do i just say you know what let the lord deal with him in this particular case i just felt it was wiser to take the loss now when paul was speaking to the Corinthians he said in first Corinthians chapter six versus six and seven brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another why do you not rather accept wrong why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated and that was the scripture that that i acted on see i could take him to small claims court i could have you know gotten the money from him one way or another or i could say lord i'm gonna leave this in your hands what's interesting is several months after the fact he finally came to church one day and gave me a check for the amount of money that he owed me but i had already given that up i'd already given that to the lord because for me i really felt and i still do that unity in the body of christ was more important than me making issues over those things and the second thing i had learned and i was thinking about was god takes care of me day to day and i'm not going to get caught up with this material thing where i get my money from you because you owe it to me because it's going to take my eyes off the kingdom of god and i want to have god do his work and god did his work in this man's heart he eventually came and gave me the money and i thanked ral very much for that i'm just kidding it wasn't ral it was greg lory no it was chuck but anyway so he's saying here he's saying look he's saying i don't need anything except you you do what is right well going on he says in uh in verse 31 bars alive the gillie died came down from rogue gilliam rogue gilliam is an interesting city by the way that's where they discovered rogaine no it's not i'm on a roll i'm sorry rogilliam and went across the jordan with the king to escort him across the jordan now barzolai was a very aged man 80 years old and he had provided the king with supplies while he stayed at mahanayim for he was a very rich man and the king said to barzolai come across with me and i'll provide for you while you are are with me in jerusalem in other words you did me such so much good i just want to bless you in return but barzolai said to the king how long have i to live that i should go up with the king to jerusalem i'm today 80 years old can i discern between the good and bad in other words do you want me to be your counselor do you think i have that kind of wisdom can your servant taste what i eat or what i drink i'm losing these kinds of senses can i hear any longer the voice of singing men and and and singing women i really can't even enjoy a banquet and hear the entertainment why then should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king your servant will go a little way across the jordan with the king and why should the king repay me with such a reward please let your servant turn back again that that i may die in my own city near the grave of my father and mother but here is your servant kim ham now this is his his son kim ham let him cross over with my lord the king and and do for do for him what seems good to you the king answered kim ham shall cross over with me and i will do for him what seems good to you now whatever you request of me i will do for you then all the people went over the jordan and when the king had crossed over the king kissed bars alive blessed him and he returned to his own place now the king went on to gilgall and and came on went on with him and all the people of juda escorted the king and also half the people of israel he said listen i don't really require any blessings from you i don't require anything like that at all but as any loving father i don't need the blessings that you are wanting to give me but would you please just bless my son and so david obviously said well of course i'll be a blessing to your son even for your sake you know in a sense you know the lord is a blessing to us for his son's sake because the lord jesus christ laid his life down for us and we gave our lives to him god is now blessing us for his son's sake and so in this particular case the father didn't want the blessings but he wanted to make sure that that one whom he loved was cared for well in verse 41 following and concluding just then all the men of israel came to the king and and said to the king why have our brother and the men of juda stolen you away or literally kidnapped you and brought the king his household and all david's men with him across the jordan so all the men of juda answered the men of israel because the king is a close relative of ours why are you angry over this matter have we ever eaten at the king's expense or has he given us any gift the men of israel answered the men of juda and said we have 10 shares in the king in other words there's 10 tribes so we have 10 shares in the king therefore we also have more right to david than you why then do you despise us were we not the first to advise bringing back our king yet the words of the men of juda were fiercer than the words of the men of israel what you have here is division juda hadn't informed the other tribes that david was returning and so the men of israel are angry they begin to question them about it juda's response is simply hey we have a greater interest david is one of ours but the sad thing is is instead of unity instead of the the nation coming together again under one king and being united you have a lack of information that leads to division and you're going to see this as we continue in our studies how that this slight is something that actually finds its way into the the heart of the nations and you'll see that as we go through this in the future